It was all in vain; the move turned out to be premature. The Spanish
policy of the suppression of education and intelligence was now destined
to show its baneful results. A wave of ignorance and anarchy swept over
the devoted leaders of the revolution, and overwhelmed them completely,
and for the time being even their work. For half a century rival
chieftains rose up one after the other to contend for power. Many of
them employed every conceivable means, whether human or inhuman, to
retain it when once they had succeeded in grasping the coveted
Dictator's throne.
So numerous were these men, and so extensive is the catalogue of their
callous doings, that it is impossible to refer to them in any other but
the briefest fashion here. So extensive, moreover, was the new Republic
of Argentina--or, rather, at that time the collection of frequently
antagonistic provinces which then occupied the area now filled by the
modern Republic--that a single ruler seldom succeeded in maintaining his
authority from frontier to frontier.
In general, the main strife may be said to have been waged between the
provinces of the littoral and those of the Far West. Of all the men who
fought on either side, the greatest leader was, of course, Juan Manuel
Rosas.
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